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301. V. THAT CONSENT IS TO BE STRENGTHENED AND CONFIRMED BY A SOLEMN BETROTHAL. The reasons for betrothals are as follows: 1. That after them the two souls may mutually incline to each other. 2. That the universal love to the sex may be determined in each to one of the sex. 3. That the interior affections may be mutually known, and by applications may be conjoined in the inward cheerfulness of love. 4. That the spirits of the two may enter into marriage and be more and more consociated. 5. That conjugial love may thus rightly progress from its first heat to its nuptial flame. 6. Consequently, that conjugial love may proceed from its spiritual origin in just order and may take increase. The state of betrothal may be likened to the state of spring before summer, and the internal amenities of that state to the blossoming of trees before fructification. Since the initiations and progressions of conjugial love proceed in order, to the end that they may flow into the effective love which commences from the wedding, therefore in the heavens also there are betrothals.